The EU Council has approved its ninth package of sanctions aimed at increasing pressure on Russia over its full-scale war against Ukraine. The package includes restrictions in export, the banking sector, broadcasting, consulting services, energy and mining sectors, and individual sanctions.
Restrictions will be placed on the export of goods and technologies that can contribute to the technological improvement of the Russian military sector, with 168 additional entities falling under the new measures.
“This will ensure that key chemicals, nerve agents, night-vision and radio-navigation equipment, electronics and IT components that could be used by the Russian war machine cannot be freely traded,” reads the report.
The sanctions package has also extended the ban on the export of goods and technologies related to the aviation and space industry to Russia, including aircraft engines and their parts. This prohibition will apply to both manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, which means that the direct export of drone engines to Russia and any third country that may supply drones to Russia is now forbidden.
The EU will also freeze the assets of two more Russian banks and impose a full transaction ban on the state-controlled Russian Regional Development Bank.
Under the ninth package, the Council has decided to suspend the broadcasting licenses of Kremlin-controlled NTV/NTV Mir, Rossiya 1, REN TV, and Pervyi Kanal media outlets.
This move aims to address Russia’s “systematic, international campaign of disinformation and information manipulation intended to destabilize its neighboring countries,” according to the report.
New investments in the Russian mining sector and provision of EU advertising, market research, and opinion polling services to Russia are prohibited as well.
As of today, EU citizens will be banned from holding any positions in the governing bodies of all Russian state-owned or state-controlled companies and organizations located in Russia.
The EU council has also expanded the list of individual sanctions but didn’t specify the names of the persons and entities it had included in the list.
